Burma Junta Accused of Mass Poisoni

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Subject: Burma Junta Accused of Mass Poisoning

(UPI Focus)

Burma junta accused of mass poisoning

BANGKOK, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Activists monitoring human rights

abuses in Burma say (Tuesday) soldiers used dead rats to poison

the water supply of some 10,000 ethnic Shan villagers, killing at

least 400 of them since May.

The Shan Human Rights Foundation says the villagers began

falling ill in large numbers in May of 1998 after the soldiers

dumped thousands of poisoned rats into the Pawn River, which is

the only source of water for more than 10,000 Shan villagers in

the central Shan state district of Parng Long.

A representative of the privately funded foundation told United

Press International the poisoning reports were based on Shan

refugees crossing the border from Burma into Thailand.

Says the foundation representative, "I was skeptical, but after

we talked to people coming out we were convinced the reports were

absolutely genuine."

The villagers were quoted as saying military authorities in the

area ordered residents to bring rats, most of them poisoned with

cheap, Chinese-manufactured poison, to the soldiers, who then

dumped the dead rodents into the river.

The poisoning symptoms reportedly included severe headache,

followed by fever, vomiting, severe dehydration and blurred

vision, followed by death.

Children who swam in the river were among the first to die, and

the deaths have continued until as recently as last month,

according to the refugee accounts.

The Shan Human Rights Foundation has issued an urgent appeal for

independent medical experts to visit the area, which is largely

closed off from the outside world by Burma's xenophobic military

rulers.

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Copyright 1999 by United Press International.

All rights reserved.

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Myanmar-Poison/

Shan human rights group accuses Myanmar junta of poisoning villagers=


úúúChiang Mai, Thailand (dpa) - Shan human rights activists said

Tuesday that Myanmar's (Burma's) military junta had poisoned the

water supply of 10,000 Shan villagers, killing at least 400 of them

since last May.


úúúThe allegations of mass poisoning were made in a detailed report

sent via the internet to diplomats and news agencies by the Shan

Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), a non-government organization based

along the Thai-Myanmar border.


úúúThe group claimed that since May 1998 more than 400 Shan villagers

have died with symptoms of poisoning in the central Shan state

district of Parng Long.


úúúThe group's report, based primarily of refugee accounts, could not

be independently verified.


úúúAccording to Shan human rights activists and villagers, the sudden

deaths began occurring after the dumping by the Myanmar military of

thousands of poisoned rats into the Pawn River, the only source of

water for the more than 10,000 residents of 144 villages in Parng


Long.


úúúParng Long is famous within Myanmar as the town where the Parng

Long Agreement was signed in 1947, in which the leaders of Shans,

Kachins, Burmans and Chins agreed to join a Union of Burma to regain

independence from the British.


úúú"We are convinced that the massive number of deaths in the Parng

Long area is a direct result of the dumping by the army troops of

poisoned rats into the Pawn River," said a SHRF activist.


úúúAccording to the SHRF activist, in April of 1998 the Myanmar army

ordered each Shan in Parng Long to collect 5 dead rats and deliver

them to the authorities. The rats had mostly been killed with Chinese

rat poison, which is cheap and readily available in central Shan

state.


úúú"It was strange that they had never issued such an order before,"

said Nahn Ho Kham, an SHRF activist, noting that rats had always been

plentiful in Parng Long area.


úúúLater the army dumped the dead rats into the Pawn River, according

to Shan farmers who said they witnessed it. "That happened twice in

April and in July of 1998," Kham said.


úúúWithin days after the rats were dumped, villagers began falling

sick. "They (villagers) are Tai Loi (Hill Shan). They said they have

never seen such diseases," Kham said, adding that the first to begin

suffering were children from the houses nearest the river, who often

went swimming.


úúúThe poisoning symptoms reportedly began with severe headache,

followed by fever and vomiting. The victims would then be unable to

keep down any food or drink, and would quickly become weak and

dehydrated, and their vision would start failing.


úúúThis would continue for five or more days until the patient died.

After death, the victims' lips and the palms of their hands would

turn black, and dark blotches would appear on their skin.


úúúAccording to the report issued by the SHRF, Myanmar government

authorities and health workers did not show up in the area until

recently.


úúú"They (local health workers) did not come but they knew that

people were dying," Kham said.


úúúKham said most of the villagers, except educated ones, did not

connect the deaths with the dumping of the rats in the river.


úúúDeaths of relocated Shan villagers from poisoning are continuing

to be reported this year.


úúúKham said the fact that villagers were still dying in January

indicates that there is still poison present in the water of the Pawn

River.


úúúThe SHRF issued an urgent statement asking for independent medical

experts from international health organizations to demand immediate

access to the central Shan state. But the group admits that outside

access is unlikely to be granted by the Yangon (Rangoon) junta.


úúúAnalysts in Thailand pointed out that there was no solid evidence

to prove that the dumping of the rats was a deliberate attempt to

kill the villagers, but the refusal of local officials to address the

health emergency shows that the military authorities were content to

let the villagers die in large numbers.

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231047 GMT Feb 99 nnnn
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